San Joaquin County Biographies
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
CHARLES R. SMITH.
On the list of agriculturists in the Escalon section of San Joaquin
County appears the name of Charles R. Smith, who resides on his home place of
136 acres situated about. eighteen miles southeast of Stockton, being a portion
of the 500-acre tract of land purchased by his father in 1874. He was born at
Scottsville, Cal., April 18, 1859, the youngest son of the late Charles Edward
and Isabelle (Robertson) Smith, the former a native of Maine and the latter of
Canada. The mother of our subject accompanied her parents to California via
Panama in 1853 and settled in Amador County. Charles Edward Smith crossed the
plains in 1853 to California in search of gold. Arriving in California he, too,
settled in Amador County, and there he met and married Miss Robertson; then he
moved to Washington, Cal., where he worked as a miner and also engaged in
stockraising. Later the family removed to San Joaquin County, where the father
bought the property of Captain McQuien, consisting of eighty acres located near
Woodbridge on which is a natural lake known as Smith Lake. In 1874 he acquired
500 acres of land about eighteen miles southeast of Stockton, which he farmed to
grain, but the family always made their home on the ranch near Woodbridge. The
father passed away at the age of seventy-two years.
On September 28, 1898, at Woodbridge, Charles R. Smith was married to
Miss Caroline Matthews, born at Pine Grove, Cal., September 26, 1875, a daughter
of Dan S. Matthews, a native of Indiana who later moved to Illinois and from
there came to California in 1874. Mr. Matthews was a freighter from Whitmore's
Mill, Amador County, to Sacramento for many years; later he removed to San
Joaquin County and engaged in farming on Roberts Island for a number of years.
He passed away at Sacramento in 1915. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are the parents of
eight children: Helen M. is a graduate of the Western Normal School in Stockton
and the Stockton Commercial College; and during the World War served for
eighteen months in the office of the War Risk Bureau in Washington. D. C.; she
is now holding a fine position in Stockton; Isabelle C.; Charles. H.; Albert M.;
Cyril W.; Philip E.; Estella N.; and Janice. Helen and Isabelle Smith are
members of Stockton Parlor, N. D. G. W., and Charles H. is a member of the De
Molay Order in Stockton. Mr. Smith is a Mason and Mrs. Smith and two of their
daughters are members of the Eastern Star Lodge. Mr. Smith has devoted much of
his time to the advancement of educational matters and is now serving as a
director of the Escalon Union high school. His political support is given to the
Republican party and he has always taken an active part in community interests.
History of San Joaquin County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co.,
1923
p 1497
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.